Review: How Forage Feeding Early in Life Influences the Growth Rate, Ruminal Environment, and the Establishment of Feeding Behavior in Pre-Weaned Calves
, Jinghui Li 2, Yajing Wang 1, Shengli Li 1 and Zhijun Cao 3,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript needs considerable amount of editing of the English
More care needs to be taken to edit down and reference each statement of a study.
Table 1 should have been split into appropriate subject areas according to the main objectives and then each table should be reorganized within each table to demonstrate the main outcomes of the studies.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Responses to the Manuscript animals-668691: Review: How forage feeding early in life influences the growth performancerate, ruminal environment and the behavioral establishment of feeding behavior by in dairy pre-weaned calves
Dear Editor and Reviewers,
We take this opportunity to thank you for the time you have taken to review our manuscript and the invaluable comments you have given us. We have, to the best of our knowledge, made the necessary changes to improve the quality of this manuscript from its current form. Please find below our response to your comments.
Reviewer 1:
The manuscript needs considerable amount of editing of the English
AU: We have thoroughly revised the the manuscript to make it more readable and improve the quality.
More care needs to be taken to edit down and reference each statement of a study.
AU: We have re-referenced the statements as suggested.
Table 1 should have been split into appropriate subject areas according to the main objectives and then each table should be reorganized within each table to demonstrate the main outcomes of the studies.
AU: We split Table 1 into several tables that capture the key findings of either offering or not offering forage on calf performance.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This review was well designed and provides important information and a comprehensive overview of forage inclusion in young calves. The review was generally well-written with few grammatical errors and was well organized. I recommend accept this review after revise some minor suggestions that list below:
Line 25: delete “try and”
Line 55: delete “.”
Line 75: change “behavior” to “behavior establishment”
Line 93: change “rate” to “percentage”
Line 95: change “calves’” to “calves”
Line 96: “hence the proliferation of related research is conducted”
Line 98: change “a study” to “studies”
Line 103: change to “the hay intake decreased linearly, and the live and empty BW and rumen development increased”
Line 121: delete “with”
Line 131: need to add the “percentage of alfalfa hay has been used”
Line 135: delete “(EBWADG)”
Line 179: change “wheat straw” to “wheat straw:”
Line 183: delete “added”
Line 230: delete “contrary to previous studies.”
Line 252: change to “affect behavior development and expression in dairy calves”
Line 269: change “a” to “another”
Line 298: add “lower” before fermentation rate
Line 313: this sentence needs to be revised
Line 359: change “，” to ”,”
Line 415: change to “accumulation was inconsistent [104] or transiently fluctuated [105] in lactic acid”
Line 459-461: delete or rewrite this sentence
Author Response
Responses to the Manuscript animals-668691: Review: How forage feeding early in life influences the growth performancerate, ruminal environment and the behavioral establishment of feeding behavior by in dairy pre-weaned calves
Dear Editor and Reviewers,
We take this opportunity to thank you for the time you have taken to review our manuscript and the invaluable comments you have given us. We have, to the best of our knowledge, made the necessary changes to improve the quality of this manuscript from its current form. Please find below our response to your comments.
Reviewer 2:
Line 25: delete “try and”
AU: Changed
Line 55: delete “.”
AU: Changed
Line 75: change “behavior” to “behavior establishment”
AU: Changed
Line 93: change “rate” to “percentage”
AU: Changed
Line 95: change “calves’” to “calves”
AU: Changed
Line 96: “hence the proliferation of related research is conducted”
AU: Changed
Line 98: change “a study” to “studies”
AU: Changed
Line 103: change to “the hay intake decreased linearly, and the live and empty BW and rumen development increased”
AU: Changed
Line 121: delete “with”
AU: Changed
Line 131: need to add the “percentage of alfalfa hay has been used”
AU: Changed
Line 135: delete “(EBWADG)”
AU: Changed
Line 179: change “wheat straw” to “wheat straw:”
AU: Changed
Line 183: delete “added”
AU: Changed
Line 230: delete “contrary to previous studies.”
AU: Changed
Line 252: change to “affect behavior development and expression in dairy calves”
AU: Changed
Line 269: change “a” to “another”
AU: Changed
Line 298: add “lower” before fermentation rate
AU: Changed
Line 313: this sentence needs to be revised
AU: Changed
Line 359: change “，” to ”,”
AU: Changed
Line 415: change to “accumulation was inconsistent [104] or transiently fluctuated [105] in lactic acid”
AU: Changed
Line 459-461: delete or rewrite this sentence
AU: Changed
Reviewer 3 Report
There was a lot of work in this review. Good job.
Comments for author File: Comments.docx
Author Response
Responses to the Manuscript animals-668691: Review: How forage feeding early in life influences the growth rate, ruminal environment and the behavioral establishment of feeding behavior by in dairy pre-weaned calves
Dear Editor and Reviewers,
We take this opportunity to thank you for the time you have taken to review our manuscript and the invaluable comments you have given us. We have, to the best of our knowledge, made the necessary changes to improve the quality of this manuscript from its current form. Please find below our response to your comments.
Reviewer 3:
The authors are commended on their work in reviewing this vast area of literature. Although there was a recent review done by Imani et al. (2017) and Diao et al. (2019), this review adds different factors that may have an interaction with forage, such as sorting behavior.
Although most of the manuscript was well written, there are significant areas that should be revised. Next time, I would highly suggest having a native speaker read the manuscript before submission.
Throughout the manuscript, I would suggest changing “pre-weaning calves” to pre-weaned calves. This is a preference and not necessary for acceptance.
AU: Changed “pre-weaning calves” to pre-weaned calves throughout the manuscript.
Line 16: add comma after contrary
AU: Changed
Line 17: add “the” in front of ration
AU: Changed
Line 19: change “the young calves’ diets” to young calf diets or diets of young calves.
AU: Changed
Line 28: change calf’s to calf
AU: Changed
Line 28: add comma after forage and alfalfa (line 29)
AU: Changed
Line 47: change “as it was believed that they could reduce abnormal growth and behavior in fed milk alone” to believed to reduce abnormal growth and behavior, lower…
AU: Changed
Line 48: change “plays a vital role in rumen development” to improve rumen development
AU: Changed
Line 54-55: Incomplete sentence. Add “It was found that high concentrate diets produce higher levels of butyrate and propionate”
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 60: change provide to providing
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 62: change calf to calves
AU: Corrected
Line 66: Change the calves’ performance to calf performance
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 66: take out “the” before lower concentrate consumption
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 68-71: Rewrite with better English grammar
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 76: Change to: Factors that affect calf performance with forage inclusion
AU: Changed
Line 83: add “only allowed” before free access since the original sentence makes it sound like commercial dairy farms feed calves without forage and free access to starter feed
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 85: Change inclusion to including
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 85: change calves’ diet to calf diet or diet of calves
AU: Changed
Line 87: change calf’s to calf
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 91: In Table 1, is the Objective column necessary with so little data? I would take that out since it doesn’t provide much information.
AU: Table 1 has been modified, it has been split into several subject areas according to the main objectives and then each table has been reorganized to show the main outcomes of the studies.
Table 1 reports all studies included in this review. However, some recent studies are missing such as Guzman et al. (2015), Kehoe et al. (2019), Dill-McFarland et al. (2017), and Xia et al. (2018). Some of these have input on the section 3.2
AU: Table 1 did not include all studies, it summarized the studies which investigate the effect of forage inclusion on pre-weaned calf performance, it mainly separated and discussed the factors affecting forage use in dairy calves. The study of Xia et al (2018) was not included, because weaned calves (156.8 kg) was used in his study. The study of Guzman et al. (2015) was not included because all calves are euthanized before d 3 of age and no growth performance data was measured.
The research of Dill-McFarland et al. (2019) and Kehoe et al. (2019) has been added in Table 1 and 3.
Line 95: Change calves’ to calf diets
AU: Changed
Line 97: change calf ration to calf rations
AU: Changed to diets
Line 104: change “excellent” to a different word
AU: Changed “more excellent” to “improved”
Line 105: change concentrate to concentrations
AU: Changed
Line 105: change enhances to enhance
AU: Changed
Line 109: take out “the” before total nutrient
AU: Changed
Line 110: change “of forage” to “forage inclusion
AU: Changed
Line 111: change diet on calves to diet on calf performance
AU: Changed
Line 113: change differences to difference
AU: Changed
Line 116: In these studies, ADG and BW were higher but bulk effect should be mentioned. More hay intake, more bulkiness (and potentially rumen mass and muscle) which would increase ADG and BW more than calves not given forage.
AU: Bulk effect has been mentioned at the end of this paragraph as you suggested.
Line 117: change “to” to “in”
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 133: Change “on including forage in the diet” to “from forage inclusion”
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 134: change “have shown” to showed
AU: Changed to reported
Line 136: Hill used low-quality chopped timothy hay which is the reason given for poor performance. However, in the paragraph earlier, Hosseini et al. used wheat straw which also should be low quality for preweaned dairy calves. Is there another reason these studies found different results?
AU: Both Castells and Hosseini supplemented straw in the diets and found a positive effect on calf performance, the inconsistent result on calf performance of providing low quality hay was discussed in the end of this paragraph, it might relate to the different amount of milk offered in Hill, Castells and Hosseini study.
Line 138: change calves’ to calf
AU: Changed
Line149-151: Explain this statement more: alfalfa not exhibiting the same benefits due to free access of the forage. This sentence leaves the reader wondering why would free access and palatable hay not provide the same benefits as the other forages.
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 177: change “in” to “by”
AU: Changed
Line 178: remove “studies.”
AU: Changed
Line 183: use either mixed or added.
AU: Changed to mixed
Line 190: change moisturizing to moisturized
AU: Changed
Line 190: “reconstituting the solid feed” should be explained in a different way. Maybe “rehydrating hay”?
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 203-204: this has been done in at least one recently published study (Kehoe et al, 2019; Dill-McFarland, 2017)
AU: The research of Kehoe et al, 2019 have been added. This sentence has been modified.
Line 217: add comma after corn silage, reconstituted hay
AU: Changed
Line 218: add “s” to calf diet
AU: Changed
Line 229-232: Not supported fully since just talked about the Wu study which found the opposite. Also, feed costs may actually increase if DMI increases due to forage inclusion.
AU: This sentence has been rewritten.
Line 238-243: Rewrite, very confusing
AU: This paragraph has been rewritten.
Line 243-253: Rewrite, poor grammar.
AU: This sentence has been rewritten.
Line 256: Remove spacing after first line
AU: Removed
Line 271: Replace “the calves’” with calf
AU: Changed
Line 274: this increases saliva production to neutralize rumen pH and acids
AU: This sentence has been added.
Line 290: add “the” to “in Hill et al. study
AU: Changed
Line 292: remove “wholly”
AU: Changed
Line 296: Hill et al. is not citation #86
AU: The citation has been added.
Line 298: “have fermentation rates” is not a complete thought.
AU: This sentence has been modified. Lower has been added in front of the fermentation rate.
Line 298: change “the low” to low. This allows the reader to assume there are not only low energy forages but also other (higher energy) forages. Don’t you love English grammar?
AU: Changed, thanks for your kindly remind
Line 303: change “alter” to a different word to make more sense
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 304-307: The latter group was the high milk allowance which says has the higher forage selection rate? The next few sentences go on to say that lower milk consumption will increase concentrate and forage intake. Please rewrite.
AU: This paragraph has been rewritten.
Line 316: change” the former had better performance” to “found that the former…”
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 329: take out “the” before total DMI…and before forage
AU: Changed
Line 330: change “to the one with” to “from”
AU: Changed
Line 340-342: Rewrite, poor grammar.
AU: This sentence has been rewritten.
Line 345: The rumen
AU: Changed
Line 358: What is the 84% and 16%?
AU: Explanation has been added.
Line 359: What was found lacking?
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 361: change “in calf” to “to calves”
AU: Changed
Line 365: change provide to provided
AU: Changed
Line 368: change “supplementing chopped oat hay which contains more effective fiber could…” to “supplementing chopped oat hay, containing more effective fiber, could…”
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 369-372: Run-on sentence. Rewrite
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 382: Besides is not a great word to be using often. Change to a different word (maybe “Also”).
AU: Changed
Line 386: the rumen wall instead of rumen wall
AU: Changed
Line 387: from the rumen lumen instead of from rumen lumen
AU: Changed
Line 392: in the rumen microbial ecosystem.
AU: Changed
Line 400: anything past 10 years probably should not be considered recent. Remove 37 and 38 citation.
AU: This sentence has been deleted.
Line 401: What does “supplementing forage inconsistently” mean? Please explain more or differently.
AU: This sentence has been deleted.
Line 412: remove “when”
AU: Removed
Line 413: change “that led to” to “leading to”
AU: Changed
Line 413: Change comma to period
AU: Changed
Line 419-20: change affects to affected and alter to altered.
AU: Changed
Line 427-434: there are a lot of unnecessary “the”
AU: Changed
Line 436: change “young calves microbiota” to “the microbiota of young calves.”
AU: Changed
Line 453: fragment sentence
AU: This sentence has been deleted.
Line 454 and Line 462: If Prevotella is a dominant genus of Bacteroidetes, then these two lines say the exact opposite (Bacteroidetes decrease with concentrate feeding and Prevotella increase with concentrate feeding). Please clarify.
AU: This part has been modified.
It was demonstrated that the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes dropped in adult animals fed concentrate feed and they were repeatedly induced with SARA [112]. The lower level of Bacteroidetes in calves fed only concentrate could be partly explained by a higher concentrate feed intake and a lower pH in the rumen. Furthermore, Kim et al. [44] found that the most dominant genus of Bacteroidetes was Prevotella, which is highly active hemicellulolytic and starch-degraders [114] that mainly produce acetate. A relatively higher abundance of Prevotella may be related to the higher acetate proportion in forage offering groups compared to no forage groups [44]. Similarly, Jami et al [106] have reported that Prevotella was observed to be the predominant genus in animals fed high-fiber diets rather than high-calorie diets.
Line 472: change “in a different solid consumption” to “in different solid feed consumption”
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 474: add “the” in front of Lin et al. study
AU: Changed
Line 478: change comma to period
AU: Changed
Line 484: change to “to understand better substrate fermentation”
AU: Changed to “to better understand substrate fermentation”
Line 485: change “when” to “as”
AU: Changed
Line 490: change “recent 10 years” to “latest decade”
AU: Changed
Line 491: change calves’ to calf
AU: Changed
Line 495: change spend to spent
AU: Changed
Line 497: take out “the” before newborn ruminants
AU: Removed
Line 500: change feeding to receiving
AU: Changed
Line 500: take out “Besides”
AU: Removed
Line 501: change “physical” to “physically” and “but” to “and”
AU: Changed
Line 503: take out “the” in front of saliva production and VFA
AU: Changed
Line 518: change induce to inducing
AU: Changed
Line 521: take out “the” in front of post-ingestive feedback
AU: Changed
Line 523: Change to “Feed sorting is also seen in the early life of calves, when feeding…”
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 536: change suggested to suggest
AU: Changed
Line 541: months to month
Line 550: change claves to calves
AU: Changed
Line 555: change “buckets, pen or surface licking” to “licking of…”
AU: Changed
Line 559: change “besides”
AU: Changed to furthermore
Line 556: Is allogrooming considered a negative behavior? Maybe “excessive allogrooming”?
AU: Deleted. Based on the previous study (phillips et al. 2004), allogrooming can in some circumstances be considered as a problematic behavior. However, it is a relative word and we can’t quantify to what extent it is problematic. We have thus deleted the word.
Line 573: What is “expression” referring to?
AU: This sentence has been modified.
Line 580: Change “literatures” to “research articles”
AU: Changed
Line 676: Nemati is 2016 but referred to 2017
AU: Changed
Line 692-3: formatting
AU: Changed
Line 745: Different year cited
AU: Changed
